Chris Weidman reacts after knocking out Anderson Silva during their middleweight championship bout at UFC 162 in July. On Saturday, Weidman will defend his belt in a rematch against Silva at UFC 168.(Photo: AP)

UFC 168 on Saturday night is projected to be the biggest pay-per-view event in mixed martial arts history, and it stands to reason that plenty of fight fans in Sioux Falls will be watching.

That’s because the finale of the card features Chris Weidman (10-0-0) against Anderson Silva (33-5-0) for the middleweight championship in a rematch of a summer bout won by Weidman in stunning fashion. Although based in New York, Weidman is a regular in Sioux Falls by virtue of receiving medical care and training assistance from Sanford Health. His agent, Dave Martin, lives here, too. Martin is this week’s guest on the “Too Much TV” podcast hosted by Argus Leader sports reporter Terry Vandrovec.

The full interview is available at ArgusLeader.com. Here’s an excerpt:

Q. How did you end up signing Weidman?

A. I had my eye on Chris for a long time. I knew this guy was a special, special athlete. He wrestled Ryan Bader, who is a client of mine and a regular here in Sioux Falls, in the NCAA tournament and actually beat Ryan. He wrestled at Hofstra, a two-time All-American there and a two-time All-American in junior college and I just had my eye on him. I knew he was going to be a special athlete. He grew up in New York and interviewed several agents and he ended up high on me. Lucky me, I guess. It’s just been great. He’s just a wonderful, wonderful guy; he’s got a wonderful family. He’s been nothing but a pleasure to work with and a pleasure to watch. I mean, this kid is a special talent.

Q. Weidman ended the longest title reign in UFC history in beating Silva the first time. How did that win change things for him?

A. Life changing – no doubt about it. Life changing in many ways. But he is a really grounded guy and he’s humble and he’s taken it in stride. He sat down with me – this is how special this guy is – and he said, ‘None of this matters if I don’t beat (Silva) in the rematch. I’ve got to win this one for me and for my family.’ So he’s just stayed grounded. The last 10 weeks have been nothing but focus – focus on this fight. Right after the knockout people were coming out of the woodwork wanting to help him. It’s been a life-changing thing, but Chris has taken it all in stride.

Q. In what ways has Weidman tried to improve in advance of the rematch?

A. He’s probably gotten better in every aspect. Again, I’m going to go back to he was 9-0 when they fought (the first time) and he’s fighting the greatest of all time. He’s only going to get better. Chris Weidman is going to be better 12 months from now, 18 months from now. He’s improving in every aspect of his game. His grappling – obviously coming from a wrestling background – is outstanding, but he’s just been working on every other aspect of mixed martial arts.

Q. What sort of strategy have you taken in helping Weidman navigate his newfound acclaim?

A. We’ve tried to take the approach of taking the right deal, not the right-now deal – if that makes sense. Because so many deals come at you and they may sound good with the knee-jerk reaction of ‘I want to take this,’ but is it going to haunt you in the long run? That’s just been our focus. Let’s take the right deals not the right-now deals. But, to be honest with you, the focus has been on Anderson Silva. When (Weidman) knocked out Anderson and Anderson said he didn’t want to fight Chris again, we knew the next day that he was going to fight Anderson Silva. We knew that was just Anderson being Anderson. The focus has been really on this fight.